7 Foods To Wean Baby From Breast Milk

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Weaning your baby from breast milk is a difficult period for any mother. Not only this is difficult for you, it is also a troubled time for your baby. Ideally, you should breastfeed your baby for 6 months before you consider weaning. At 6 months, solid food for baby can be a viable option. There are some foods that help wean the baby who has been breastfed so far.

Babies are usually very attached to breastfeeding; they cry for being fed even when they are not hungry. You have to identify the signs of hunger in your baby. That is the key to weaning your baby from breast milk in the right way. Your baby will accept alternate food only when he or she is really hungry. And this is the time to introduce solid foods for the baby tactically.

In the beginning, you can give your baby 3 helpings of solid food in a day. These foods have be interspersed with either your expressed and stored breast milk or formula feeding. If you are weaning your baby after 6 months of age, you can start with home cooked foods directly but you need to follow certain guidelines.

Here are some foods to help you wean your baby from breast milk in the very beginning.

Stewed Apple

Stewed apple should be one of the first foods that your baby is introduced to. Cook the apple with water in a pressure cooker for the duration of 4-5 whistles. Take of the peel and feed the pulp to your baby. Stewed apple flesh is easy to swallow and its sweet, so babies usually love this food.

Mashed Rice

Rice has to be cooked to a very soft pulp and then mixed with unsalted butter. Most baby foods contain rice and you can easily prepare it at home. Just make sure that the rice is a soft mass of pulp as you baby is still not able to chew.

Boiled Potatoes

Boiled and mashed potatoes are a great way to get some filling food into your baby. You can add some expressed milk to mashed potatoes. This will soften up the potatoes and also spark your baby's interest.

Mashed Bananas

Feed your baby seed-less bananas. Mash the bananas with your hand instead of a spoon to be extra thorough.

Water Of Boiled Dal

Boil dal or pulses with a couple of extra cups of water. When you are done, feed the extra water floating over the dal to your baby for proteins. You can easily feed this water in a feeding bottle.

Churned Khichdi

Cook dal and rice in a pressure cooker for a duration of 5-6 whistles. Then, churn this khichdi in a mixer and grinder to turn it into pulp. This is a complete meal for weaning your baby.

Water

Water is one of the most important things for your baby when you are weaning your baby. Earlier, your baby was getting plenty of water from your breastfeeds. But now you have to give the baby water after every solid feed.